Migration Is Splitting Europe Apart
The article examines the strain on the Schengen Agreement caused by the recent migration crisis in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta. It argues that while the agreement succeeded in economic integration, it has failed to foster political solidarity regarding border management.
Why it matters
The stability of the Schengen zone is critical to European economic and political unity, and its failure could signal a shift toward nationalism.
The Ceuta crisis is undermining an agreement designed to foster “solidarity.”
Abdel Majiid Bizouat / AFP / Getty July 31, 2026, 3:21 PM ET Share Save I n the summer of 1985 , representatives from five Western European countries met aboard a riverboat in Schengen, a wine-making village in Luxembourg, to celebrate the removal of checkpoints at their borders. According to the document they approved, which became known as the Schengen Agreement, the signatory countries sought “solidarity between their peoples by removing obstacles to free movement,” forming a borderless zone that gave tangible expression to principles of liberal internationalism that were ascendant as the West glimpsed victory in the Cold War.
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